Bandgeeks and the Brightest Star
by Break The Angel's Wings
Summary: When the party arives at Capua Torim, they're greeted by music. Music played by two girls who are later sucked into the chaos and bad luck that surrounds one Yuri Lowell. Just who are Jade and Nephry? Sister-insert co-written with FrozenInFlight
1. Beginnings

Neither of us own Vesperia, though FrozenInFlight and I own Jade and Nephry respectively.

We really need to stop getting so many ideas...

* * *

As they got off the boat, Yuri and the others who had been on Barbos' ship heard strange music. It sounded like it was from an ensemble of some sort, but when they looked around they could only find two girls. Shortly after they adjusted to being on solid ground again, they heard laughter as the music faded and saw the girls nearly bend over and clutching their guts as best they could. The darker-haired girl was holding a large curving piece of shining metal and the lighter-haired holding a straight silver streak of metal. As the group passed, they saw a box by the girls' feet. They had been playing for gald or ..._orange gels_...?

The party went up the stairs and headed to the inn, as they did so they heard the pair start an upbeat song. It felt cheerful and full of the joy of daily life. (Clocktown, Majora's Mask LoZ)

* * *

Yuri turned around shaking his right hand-walls are very unforgiving, you know-and spotted the purple coat of a certain fishy man. Well, he was talkative enough… He headed over to the old man.

Said purple coated old man was leaning on the back of the two benches, an elbow over each. In front of each elbow was a girl. The girls from the dock, in fact, Yuri noticed with a slight shock, hearing the end of an innuendo from the purple coated man.

The darker-haired girl blinked and grinned, "Zelos winked!"

The other girl turned red. "Jade! Why'd you have to make me notice it?"

"Because I noticed it and if you didn't notice it, I had to let you know," Jade pushed reddish glasses further up her nose.

"Wait, wait, wait! Who's this Zelos? I'm no Zelos!" The man frowned playfully at the pair.

"You know I'm oblivious to things like that. And I did notice it, but it didn't quite exactly sink in…." the other girl rubbed the back of her head and muttered, "Especially not here."

Jade made a face at the lighter-haired girl, "Then you should've beaten me to saying 'Zelos winked', Nephry!"

Nephry sighed. "Well, I wanna go down to the docks and play again." She stretched. "It's getting too quiet." She got up and picked up her metal…thing.

"Hey now-!"

And Yuri interrupted the lovely conversation, "Leave the girls alone, mister shady." Both girls seemed shocked to see him, and he noticed a bit worriedly that they seemed to recognize him. Well, they don't seem like the sort to be bounty hunters, or to run to the knights, so Yuri figured he didn't need to worry.

"Come on, Nephry. I think this place is in need of a bit more music!" Jade's dark hazel eyes lit up as she spoke.

Nephry grinned at Jade and waved to the men as her dark blue eyes sparkled slightly, "Alright then~!" She sat on the fence with her back facing the hill.

"No, no, no! Turn around!" Jade stared at the other girl, lifting a large metal _thing_. "I don't want to have to run down the hill with Beastie because you leaned too far backward and fell down the hill."

Nephry sighed and swung her legs over the fence and sat down again with her back to Jade. "Fine… Fury Sparks?"

Jade grinned. "Yes~!" She paused. "Don't you mean Spark's Scattering? Unless you _want_ to serenade people…"

Nephry turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Jade. "Ready?" She moved the gleaming instrument towards her face.

The other girl stood and proved herself taller than Nephry. "Yeah." She put the black part of the brassy instrument into her mouth after inhaling. She exhaled and produced a surprisingly deep sound out of the bell. "Tune." And then she played something that sounded like a fog horn, deeper than the first noise.

"I can't play that low! Play concert _Bb_!" Nephry demonstrated with a clear high note.

"I can't play that high without sounding like a dying duck!" Jade flailed her arms. "How about this?" She made a noise between the two extremes using what Yuri guessed was 'Beastie'.

Nephry nodded and they began adjusting the top/left part of their instruments. "Sounds good now~."

"So then…." Jade began to quickly swap between two notes on her Beastie shortly before Nephry began playing her silver instrument. At first it just sounded like the two wind instruments, then guitars and drums added in their sounds from nowhere. As soon as they got to the 'beginning' again Jade took her instrument out of her mouth. "I hate having to walk down the road, that always leads me away from you~. Holding it in I walk away without looking back." Strangely, the music continued playing in the background.

"Feeling this way so unjustified, I feel my heart can escape my pride~. Forever since that day I can't get you out of my mind," Nephry sounded annoyed. Her voice was much higher than Jade's. "It's like I'm."

Jade took over, "Living in a dream, trapped within a loop."

"Circling on eternally," both sang, "going on, to meet when our Fu~ry Sparks!" Jade stopped singing.

"The memories of those days are all gone without a trace~." Nephry quietly sang.

Jade sang with a smirk, "The feelings forever thrown away and locked without A Key!"

Both girls sang, "We were once one but are now two, forever torn apart."

Nephry sang quietly alone again, "Going and going until at last our shadows~"

Jade joined in, "Can finally touch the light."

The girls grinned at each other and continued playing for a bit before Nephry sang. "Righting the wrongs and punishing crimes~. I wonder what happened to those times? The peaceful days when I didn't worry about anything~."

Jade rolled her eyes and sang alone again, " Watching the days pass idly by. Peacefulness driving me insane, Thinking of the days when, Life didn't mean a thing~. As if when"

"Thinking of the past, does me any good." Nephry sang alone again.

"Like it even matters," Jade sounded mocking, and Nephry just shrugged as they sang. "When we meet again, the Fury Sparks Start Up Once More~!"

Jade smirked, "And right now, at this time, no need to ask me why~!"

Nephry smiled slightly, "We need to settle all of our differences right Here And Now!"

Both girls sang, "What was once one is now two , There is no going back."

"Repeating, repeating, All of the words you had to say~!" Jade grinned.

"Brings us back to this day~!" Nephry smiled as they finished together. (Fury Sparks, lyrics by MosesxSandorx247 on youtube. Us singing is "Fury Sparks with Sibling"...)

"Alright!" Nephry held up a hand for a high five. "…And don't lick me!"

Jade retracted her tongue. "Aw, but that's no fun!"

Yuri looked back to the Old Man he'd been talking to.

"As I was sayin', I saw a rough-looking guild group moving to the northwest not too long ago." The Old Man closed an eye. Yuri rubbed his chin. "The Knights can't go an' turn a blind eye to them, can they?" the other man smiled slightly.

"Rough-looking… Was it the Blood Alliance?" Yuri asked. The two girls had sat back on the bench and were arguing. Yuri couldn't tell what they were arguing about as it involved 'Every Planet Every Star' and 'The End of a Thought'. He decided to ignore them.

"Beats me." The purple coated man shrugged.

"By the way, what was your business back there anyway?"

The other man turned away. "Nothin' special. I was looking for an 'apatheia'."

"An 'apatheia'?"

"Supposed to be like a really strong core." He shrugged. "I heard it was there, but I guess I had the wrong information."

"I see… an 'apatheia'…."

"Oh! Yuri!" Captain Karol yelled, "Hey, over here!" Yuri and the old man turned to look in Karol's direction. Estelle and Rita stood next to him.

"Argh! I'll get you old man!" Rita charged toward Yuri and the old man.

"Well, this'll be interesting." Nephry sounded amused.

"Hmm. Maybe I'd best be off, now. See ya, ladies." The old man winked at the two girls and turned around again.

"Yeah, the Amazoness has emerged." Yuri nodded. The purple coated man waved and ran off.

"Wait, dammit! I'm gonna beat you senseless!" Rita yelled, stopping next to Yuri before running after the old man again.

Karol panted, "Yuri, why didn't you stop him?"

"He said he was terribly misunderstood."

"What? What does that mean?" Karol caught his breath.

Rita stalked back over. "…He got away." She glared in the direction the old man had gone. "I'll get him one of these days…"

"You should leave him be." Yuri advised. "Going after guys like him is just a waste of energy." Estelle caught up, panting. "You all right?"

"…Just let me… take a … little break." The pinkette gasped.

"Sure, you can have a little one. But then we've gotta go."

"Go? Go where?"

"Well, we need to follow the Blood Alliance to get back the lower quarter's blastia, but for now, the inn. It's getting late." Yuri explained.

"So, you got a lead on where to go next?" Estelle tilted her head.

"Yeah, I heard that a shady group from a guild was headed to the northwest. It might be them."

Karol frowned. "To the northwest of here…the only city I can think of in that direction would be one that was destroyed in an earthquake."

Estelle frowned slightly. "What could they want to do in a place like that?"

"Hmm, good question." Yuri muttered.

"And yet you still want to go?" Rita demanded.

"I'm just saying we should go and check it out." Yuri shrugged. "Let's go to the inn, now."

"Okay!"

"Wait a minute…." Rita looked at the two girls. "What are you two doing to that formula?"

"What do you mean?" Jade asked, pausing in her playing. It was the same song they heard shortly after they arrived.

"It doesn't look right."

Nephry stopped playing as soon as Jade started again. "What do you mean?"

"I told you, the formula doesn't look right!"

"But we aren't using a formula!" Nephry frowned as Jade blinked. "We're playing a Score…."

"No, you're using a formula." Rita crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "But you're using it to add to your music instead of casting anything…"

Jade shrugged. "Exactly. We're playing a Score."

"We know we're doing magic, but…." Nephry shrugged.

"Isn't that what music is?" Jade grinned, the girls speaking as if one. The music kept playing, even though neither of them were.

Rita scowled at the pair of girls. "You're coming with me!"

"Why?" Nephry asked as Jade shrugged, "Okay."

"You just are!"

"Let us pack up our instruments then…." Nephry mumbled as Rita tried to tug her away. "Jade, can you grab my case? I don't think she's gonna let me get it."

"Sure." Jade let go of her Beastie, but it didn't fall. She grinned and grabbed the shorter girl's case. Yuri noticed a black harness was attached to the huge instrument, a contraption that went over her shoulders and about her ribs. Jade handed Nephry her case, grabbed a sling and slung that onto her back. "After you, my lady." Jade swept a bow and followed with a slight smirk.

Rita glared at her and dragged Nephry down to the inn, asking the girl about 'Scores' and what exactly they thought they were doing with those.

"Oh, right!" Estelle ran up to Jade. "I'm Estelle." She offered a hand and smiled.

Jade waved a hand. "I'm Jade."

Nephry told Rita, "I told you, all we do is remember how it sounded and then focus on that sound! Or when we have a Score, we think about how it should be played. That's it!"

"But you aren't using a formula!"

"Exactly!"

Jade leaned down to throw her arms about Rita's shoulders. "If you feel something when we play, then it's working," She grinned. "That's what music's supposed to do."

Rita spun and tried to hit Jade, who had already backed up. "What are you trying to say?"

"Music makes emotions." Nephry shrugged. "The more expressive it is, the stronger the emotion most of the time."

"Most of the time?" Jade raised an eyebrow at the shorter of the pair. "You sure it's only most of the time, Nephry?"

"I don't think Search a Seal – Tethe'Alla is very expressive, at the beginning, and it still manages to be rather creepy."

"Yeah, at the _beginning_. You can't judge a song by the first five seconds or half of the song. Take the Eighth Candle, the first half is quiet and the second half is a dance." And they went on to talk about things that made absolutely no sense to Yuri.

Nephry shrugged. "I don't think Faust is very expressive."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Considering how fast Lewis makes you guys play that….."

"Explain!" Rita demanded, grabbing Jade and Nephry's shirts.

"I'll go get us rooms at the inn." Yuri said, taking the offered gald from Jade.

"We already have a room," Nephry called after him.

"But we need to renew it!" Jade reminded Nephry. Yuri kept the inn door open so he could hear what they said.

"Rita Mordio."

"Huh?" Nephry sounded confused.

"That's my name."

"Oh, yes. We know who you are." Nephry sounded like she smiled as Jade just said in a rather odd, stiff tone, "We know who you are."

"Oh right!" Captain Karol jumped in the air, judging by the thunks Yuri heard. "I'm Karol Capel! I'm a member of the Hunting Blades!" Repede barked.

"The dog's Repede." Rita explained. The mismatched group entered the inn with Jade and Nephry.

"Wow, what a strange group of people." A woman muttered to her companion as the rest of the group caught up to Yuri at the desk. "A dog and even a couple of kids…and they don't really look like they're all related, either."

"As the gateway to all of Tolbyccia, Capua Torim sees its fair share of interesting folks." Her male companion shrugged. "A motley crew like theirs isn't too uncommon among all of the guilds that pass through here."

"Yeah, but I could swear that I've seen that young man somewhere before…" The woman frowned.

"You too, ma'am? To tell the truth, he looks familiar to me, too. I wonder where I've seen his face…" The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Yuri turned away from the pair as the desk clerk told him, "Your room is the last one down, on the right. Have a pleasant stay." The clerk gave him a key.

"Sure, thanks." Yuri waved and started to make his way to the room.

"Brunels, you only paid for one more night."

"Kay." Nephry waved a hand absently and walked to the second-to-last room on the right.

* * *

Yes, FrozenInFlight is my sister. No, none of the names that we will use in this story will tell you our actual names. Nephry uses a flute, Jade uses a baritone saxophone(Beastie) and an alto sax(Mini me).

Tell us what you think~


	2. Unexpected

I jerked awake as a cold wet _spot_ pressed itself against my back. Blinking, trying to get that whole 'see in the dark' thing working, I made out a light-and-dark shape eyeing me. Then I got my face licked.

"Wha? Dog? Repede?" The warrior dog gave me a look, before carefully pulling a piece of paper out from behind his sheath.

"whls adjnga lknv five more minutes, it's not even light out." My sister had woke from my muttering, and Repede backed away from my bed to go give her the same treatment, by her yelp. Squinting, man, Yuri had horrible handwriting, I scanned the note. What's this about bounty hunters and... oh. Dark Enforcer Sidequest.

Why was he waking us up?

... oh. We'd been seen talking with them, heading to the inn.

Crap.

"Jade, we need to get up now." I pull the blanket up because dog or no, Repede was a guy.

"Wwhhhyyy." Despite the groan, I could hear her getting up.

"Because we're part of the Yuri Lowell Gang."

"What."

"Remember the person who started muttering as Yuri got a room?"

"No."

"Well, we gotta go."

"Fine."

A flurry of movement had both of us dressed and our belongings gathered.

"You're wearing the scarf." And my sister putting clothing on me without me wanting it. I gacked and flailed. "It's going to be cold, you keep complaining, unless you want to ask to share clothes, you're wearing the scarf." She wrapped it around my neck and shoved my jacket into my arms, pulling her own on and following it up with the case for her Bari, and the case for her Alto.

We probably looked really ridiculous, following a blue and white dog out a window in the middle of the night, but it was the middle of the night. Who was watching?

Oh, right. Yuri.

The dark haired swordsman fit really well in with the night, so if Repede hadn't given a woof of 'mission complete', Jade might have walked into him. She wasn't wearing her glasses, which might have been the problem.

"Sorry about that." Yuri told us after giving us a once over. "Apparently, you're part of my criminal gang now."

Jade gave a grunt and pulled out her glasses.

"Sorry?" Yuri gave my sister a questioning look.

"She says it's too early to be coherent. Try again in a few hours." I translated for him.

"Ah. Well, in any case, we'll take you two to the next town, given as you're now wanted." Yuri turned to the others, who, clad in far brighter colors, were further into the woods. "Any problems?"

"I wanna sleep." Karol complained.

"I agree." My sister tacked on, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses.

"Sorry." Gasp, two apologies out of Yuri Lowell in one night? "I guess some people actually pay attention to the wanted posters."

"So those really were of you?" I asked, getting the remaining eye-crusts gone. "It... didn't really share too many resemblances."

"Hair color. Smirk." Jade mumbled coherently. "Name."

"Oh, yes!" Estelle blinked and smiled, cheerful despite the fact we had hours to go till dawn. Probably. "So what's your name?" She looked at me. "I never got it yesterday."

"Nephry and Jade Brunel." I indicated my sister with her name. She might have mumbled something along the lines of "hehe, nephrite", but I wasn't sure.

"And you know who I am, and this is Repede." Yuri gave us one more look over before he started walking. "I hope you don't mind that we're taking a detour before we get to the next town. Got some people to find."

"Ah, no." That would mean... Caer Bocram. Not that we didn't already know when and where we were in terms of plot, the Old Man gave it away.

The sky had just begun to get light when Jade decided she wanted to hug Yuri. I knew this happened because all of the sudden Yuri made a noise somewhere near a yelp but much quieter.

"Um... Jade?" Estelle was very confused by my sibling's turn in behavior.

"I know I'm good looking and all, but isn't there something you should say before you start hugging me?" Yuri asked, walking still.

"Hiiiiii."

"Um... Sorry." I decide to take pity on the poor ex-knight and free him from my sister. "Her mind's still not here yet."

"She's a zombie?" Ah, Captain Karol the Cowardly...

"At this point in time, yes?" I don't really reassure Karol, because Jade was awake enough to flail her arms up and groan "Braaaiiiinnnnsss" at the zombie comment.

"Aaaahhh!" Karol took refuge behind Rita, and got hit on the head for it.

"No, she's just not a morning person."

"We've been walking for three hours." Rita frowned.

"It's still morning." I lightly shove my sister in the shoulder and she corrects her walking so she wouldn't trip over Repede.

"Oh look, a squirrel! _Sing a song of sixpence, a bundle full of rye_." Jade pointed off to the right, and as some of us looked – she had pointed out a few squirrels earlier today – the singing tipped me off that she hadn't actually found another harmless animal. "_Four and twenty blackbirdies baked in a pie._"

"That's not a squirrel!" Rita snapped, flicking out her scarf as Repede darted for the basilisk that was now finding itself swarmed with blackbirds. Flute, no flute, flute, no fl- oh, a Repede and a Yuri. No flute it is. The poor lizard, or maybe not so poor, it wasn't as if it was Tkaa or something, fell quickly.

And no blackbirdies were harmed.

"You're doing something weird – what are you doing to that formula?" Rita had nearly jumped Jade, who hadn't gotten further then "little bo peep" before the basilisk fell.

"Formula? I don't wanna work on math!" This didn't make Rita's mood any better, but Yuri was amused.

"... Formula?" I flip open my bag and look for that folder. "You mean these, then?" There was a sheet of music – for Karma, but I pushed it toward the mage before Jade got it into her head that she should start flailing her arms back at Rita. She snatched it and scanned the lines.

"This makes no sense."

"Well, it's only one page of three..." I spread the other two out for her, and she looks at them as well.

"... This isn't a formula."

"That's because it's a Score." Jade stated. "And I'm hungry now." After telling us that, she produced an orange from one of her coat pockets and set to peeling it.

"Oh, so you're awake now?" Yuri asked.

"...Did I start talking to the nargles?" Jade replied, completely sincere, as far as they could tell.

"... never heard of a nargle."

"No, you weren't talking to things." Estelle reassured my sister. "You just hugged Yuri."

"…Why do you have a Satsuma?" I pointed at the orange-that-was-too-small-to-be-an-orange.

"Not a sat-on-a-suma." Jade popped a piece into her mouth and grinned. Her teeth were coated in a bright red.

Karol yelped.

"Wh-what?" Estelle gasped.

"**Blood** orange~!" My sister offered me a slice. I happily accepted it and ate it. Though, unlike her, I accidentally squirted Rita with some of the juice.

"Sorry Rita." I mumbled, offering her a scrap of blue cloth from my bag.

Rita grabbed it and wiped off her cheek, muttering semi-angrily as she did so.

….Why do I have _All your friends are gone. The one true fact that kept you strong has moved on…_ stuck in my head? I started humming the song. "Hey, Jade, do you know why I'm thinking of Tony Stark right now?"

"No."

"Neither do I." I sighed slightly. Well, it is better than listening to Final Countdown. **Lloyd **wouldn't **stop** whistling that the last day we had science together before we found ourselves in Terca Lumiries. No, 'Lloyd' didn't come with us; that second 'we' was my sister and myself. Aw come on….really? Now I have the Final Countdown, the pep band version, stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, Lloyd the Trumpet.

"Tony Stark?" Estelle asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Character from a….." I paused. "Hey, is that what you guys are heading toward?" I pointed toward a broken piece of what looked like a wall. Now I miss Lloyd (Jade, Hikaru), Guy (Yuan, Kaoru), Anise (also known as Zelos and Kyouya), Tear (Raine, Rieko), Mieu (Sylph, Tamaki), Natalia(Sheena?), Noelle, Luke (Gnome), the third Lavi(Kasanoda), and even Dist(Tweedle A). I forgot how homesick thinking of any of them makes me.

Well, maybe not Dist.

"No, that's just a piece of rubble." Karol replied, looking at it. "We shouldn't reach where we're going for a while."

"Kay." I stretched.

"Hey, let's stop for a bit. We need to eat some breakfast." Yuri called.

"Kay!" I turned around. "Who's gonna cook?"

"I'll cook this time," Yuri sighed. "Maybe we need to take turns for who cooks…."

Estelle frowned. "We could draw a name out of a bag or a hat or something…"

"Good idea, Estelle," Rita seemed very thoughtful. "This way, the person with the best cooking isn't always the one who cooks and the person with the worst cooking isn't always cooking either…"

"Alright, alright." Yuri put his free hand in his pocket. "Give me some room so I can cook. Riceballs fine for everyone?"

I looked at him warily, "Are you planning on putting shrimp in them?"

"No."

"Then I'm fine with 'em." I looked at Jade. "Are you fine with it, Jade?"

Jade walked in a circle a couple of times before sitting.

I sighed. "I'll take that as a yes, then…" I walked over and sat next to my sister. Shortly after Yuri started cooking, I got an idea. "Hey, Estelle, do you have any books on magical theory with you?"

The princess tilted her head, "Yeah, but why?"

"I wanna see what elements I'd be able to learn." I shrugged, remembering the skit where Yuri says he can't do magic because he can't study. "You can look at one of our books, if you want…"

Jade glared at me, "Why are you offering my books?"

"Because she won't write on them."

"Right." I hope that translation spell Jade tried making worked… it's not like we could really test it considering we could already read the books….

Estelle's green eyes lit up. "You have books?"

Jade gave her a look."Why would I go anywhere without books?"

Estelle frowned, "Because you might not like reading?"

Jade stared at her before pulling out _The Queen of the Damned_. That was an….**interesting **book, to say the very least. "Does this answer your question?"

Estelle tilted her head and reached out for the book.

"You might not want to read that Estelle." I sighed.

"What do you mean?" Estelle looked at me.

"It's awkward." Jade replied.

"What do you mean awkward?" Estelle looked very confused, just like Meiu/Sylph/Estelle. Maybe that's why she's Estelle.

"The purple coated man awkward." Jade tried to explain. "Let me get a more…" she paused, "suitable book out."

"How about _The Eye of the World_?" I reached into my bag and pulled out the 670 page book. "It doesn't have anything awkward in it, and Estelle might like the back-story more than we did…"

"What do you mean more than you did?" Rita asked, looking over at the three of us.

"They spent 200 pages telling us false rumors." Jade paused. "Well, it might've been less than 200 but it felt like 200."

"Oh." Estelle walked over to her bag and pulled out a couple semi-thick books. They didn't look to have more pages than my 9th grade math book.

"Thanks Estelle!" I smiled at the pinkette as she swapped her books for my offered one.

"Rita, do you have any on you?" Jade asked.

"Any what?"

"Books on magical theory."

"Oh, yeah." Rita grabbed a stack of semi-thicker books and handed them to Jade. I opened the first book Estelle had given me.

….

…..

"So, if I go like **this** I should be able to cast _Photon_?" I tried to cast the spell. "Light! _Photon!_"

Nothing happened.

"So…..Like this?" Jade snapped, pointing into the distance like Roy Mustang. "This doesn't have a chant. _Dark Sphere!_"

Nothing happened.

"….I can't use _Dark Sphere_…." Jade frowned at her fingers.

"Trade books?" I offered Estelle's Light book.

"Sure." I got Rita's Dark book in exchange for Estelle's Light book. "So….." Jade snapped in a direction again. "Light!_ Photon!_" A tiny, pale sphere of light appeared and blew up some ten feet away. "Whoo!" Jade threw her arms up.

"This doesn't have a chant. _Dark Sphere!_" I managed to say it in rhythm, and the area blasted by Jade's _Photon_ got blasted by my sphere made of darkness. I grinned. "Alright!"

Estelle blinked. "That was fast….Though, it does make sense that it's so small your first time casting…"

Yuri grabbed a pot and walked over to a nearby stream, getting some water. "I hope there isn't any fish in here…" he muttered as he poured rice into it. He looked up as he walked back over to the group. "Who has the flint and steel?"

"That'd be me!" Karol cried, digging through his bag to give the fire starters to Yuri.

"Thanks Captain." Yuri ruffled Karol's hair. I stopped paying attention to them after that, preferring to concentrate on my magic practice.

"So….." I concentrated on a pile of leaves. "Get 'em! _Icicle!_" A small spear of ice pierced a few leaves, quickly followed by others.

"Crackle! _Lightning!_"

Nothing happened. So, Jade can't use Lightning, Dark, and Ice, and I can't use Light, Earth, and Water. Both of us can use Fire and Wind, though.

"Get 'em! _Lightning!_" I concentrated on the pile of leaves again. A single stroke of lightning weakly scattered some leaves.

"Frisbee!" I turned to stare at my sister. "_Aqua Edge!_"

"Why do you keep making up chants?"

"It's fun." She gave me a look. "Burn! _Fire!_" a single fireball set some of the leaves on fire. "Frisbee! _Aqua Edge!_"

"Scatter! _Wind Arrow!_" I smirked at my sister as I scattered the leaves she was trying to hit.

She stuck her tongue out at me. "I'ma stop."

Yuri paused in his rice ball making. "Maybe you guys could try that with cleaning this pot."

"Sounds like a plan." Jade shrugged.

"That'd be Earth and Water, wouldn't it?"

"Earth makes soap?" Jade gave me a look.

"No, but it scours." I shrugged.

"I think it'd be safer just to put some sand in there, then water to swish it about." Jade gave me a look.

"Probably."

"I don't wanna punch holes in things with flying rocks. It just seems like a bad idea to use Stone Blast on a pot, seriously."

I laughed a little. "Either way, I can't use those elements."

"This is true."

"So, I gather sand and you use a water spell?" I tapped the ground around us.

"Sounds like a plan." Jade repeated with a bit of a smirk. "I think eating comes first though."

"Oh yes." I grinned. "That way we don't get sand in the rice." Jade hummed in agreement.

"Rice balls are done!" Yuri called from the campfire.

"Kay~!" I walked over and grabbed one. Jade's hand followed mine and snagged another, followed by the rest of - well, not "Brave Vesperia", they aren't Brave Vesperia yet, and two of them don't ever join officially…yet the coliseum seemed to think that they were part of Brave Vesperia. Well, given that they never leave...

Karol blinked after taking a large bite, "This is really good…" Jade made a hum-like noise of agreement, reaching for another. Estelle, Rita and I followed my sister's example.

"I know it's good and all, but feed the cook!" Yuri grabbed several and moved away from the rest. Jade grabbed a third, then inched back. She quickly set herself up with the fire book in her lap and rice ball in hand to read and eat without getting stray rice-grains in the book.

I grabbed a third as well, and sat next to Jade. I grabbed the lightning book and set myself up the same way, with my rice ball away from Jade.

"Damn, foiled." Jade muttered, noticing the placement of my rice ball.

I stuck my tongue out at her, and took a bite, looking at the contents of the First Tier chapter.

Karol looked between the both of us. "You're mirrored." He comments, picking rice off his face.

"Are we?" I asked, tilting my head to the right.

Jade tilted her head to the left. "Really? Didn't notice."

"We've always done things this way." I shrugged.

"It's fun. You should try it some time." Jade picked scraps of her rice ball from her hand and ate them, eyeing the remaining rice balls.

"So much fun." I sighed, noticing three of the four remaining rice balls get picked up by Yuri, Estelle, and Rita.

Jade quickly leaned over and snagged the remaining one. She eyed it, then me, and the rice ball again.

I grinned. "I don't want it, Jade." I stood up, putting the purple book down carefully. "I'll get some sand." As soon as I was a ways away from the group, two bandits and a sorceress appeared. "Aw, come on! Really?" I said, moving out of the way of a dagger. I pulled my flute out of the holster I had put on earlier. I need to play something….. Festive Dance from Faust! That should work….

I skipped the slow parts of the song, watching how a bandit got attacked by musical notes. I am **so** glad I have this song memorized.

"That sounds like Faust." Jade must have been talking loud on purpose, because I heard her over my playing.

Oh crap. I'm at the end of Faust.

Just before my mind scrambled to find another song, I heard a **very** familiar Bari Sax start playing…. Did she really?

Oh yes… "You're playing that wrong!" I grinned, hearing my sister's wrong rhythm. "It's like **this**!"

_Now dance, baby, dance! Man, he never had a chance, and no one even knew it was really only you._

Even though we were just playing the song and not singing, a man's voice rang out above the sound of our music.

_And now you steal away, take him out today, nice work you did~, you're gonna go far, kid~. With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes, hit 'em right between the eyes._

I was so absorbed in the music, I didn't notice the bandits drop dead at "hit 'em right between the eyes". Yuri and the rest took care of the sorceress as soon as they caught up.


End file.
